Tripura Tea Industry Aims Higher with Auction Centre

The century-old tea industry of Tripura shall soon get its own auction centre as informed by the Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC). The corporation is planning to set up its own auction centre at Dharmanagar in North Tripura district, TTDC chairperson Santosh Saha said. Auctioning of tea grown in Sylhet division of Bangladesh in the centre could also be explored, according to TTDC.

Opening the auction centre will reduce the dependence on auction centers of Guwahati and Kolkata, Saha informed. Saha further said that a brand shall be created for Tripura tea, which will compete with Assam tea and other brands of the country and also try to turn the TTDC into a profit-making public sector undertaking.

Around 50,000 people are directly or indirectly dependent on the tea industry in Tripura, according to TTDC. The State has a total 58 tea gardens – 42 individually owned, 13 run by cooperative societies and three run by the TTDC.

Tea production began in Tripura at the Hiracherra Tea Estate in present day Unakoti district in 1916. As per latest reports, 6,885 hectares of land is under tea cultivation in the State. Assistant Director (Tea Development) of Tea Board of India, Diganta Barman, had recently stated that efforts were on to make the Tripura tea industry a profitable one.